An iPhone-shaped monument was erected in memory of Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs in a courtyard in St. Petersburg, Russia’s State University of Information Technology, Mechanics & Optics. Designed by Gleb Tarasov, the 74-inch-tall interactive glass monument can withstand cold temperatures.

Paralyzed patient Yan Ching-hong surfs the Internet by using a pacifier-shaped switch invented by Luo Ching-hsing, a professor at Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University. The device lets the patient type on a computer and even play video.

Robotics expert Watanaru Yoshizaki demonstrates how to operate the arm of the giant Kuratas robot at an exhibition last November in Tokyo. The 4-meter-high robots can be customized in 16 colors and armed with futuristic weapons, including a rocket launcher that fires plastic robots filled with compressed water.

Google founder Sergey Brin appears in Google Glass glasses at the Diane von Furstenberg Spring/Summer 2013 collection during New York Fashion week. The invention is intended to bring augmented reality to the wearer, who is supposed to be able to connect to the Internet via voice commands.

Chinese inventor Yang Zongfu celebrates his six-ton ball container named Noah’s Ark of China after he succeeds in testing it in Yiwu, Zhejiang province last August. He is said to have spent over $200,000 to build the vessel which can house a family of three and food to live on for 10 months.

Jonas Pfeil of Berlin Technical University holds a panoramic ball that he developed that contains 36 mobile-phone cameras that can take a picture at the highest point of the ball’s trajectory when thrown. The ball’s computer program merges all the pictures to a 360-degree image that can be viewed on a monitor.

Panasonic’s hair-washing robot washes hair on a mannequin in a demonstration in Tokyo. Developed for those who have difficulty with washing their hair, the robot first scans the user’s head, then uses robot fingers to wash the hair.

The scientists at Tokyo’s National Institute of Information came up with this prototype for a privacy visor that wards off attempts by cameras using facial-recognition biometrics software to recognize the wearer. The privacy visor is said to use a near-infrared light source that confuses the face-biometrics software without distorting the wearer’s vision.